Economic News

Sam Fleming, Daily Mail6 March 2007 Homeowners were warned last night that the property market is 'overvalued' and could be heading for a slump. GOING DOWN? House prices could be set to slump warns the IMF WANT TO KNOW MORE? DATA: Latest house price figures ADVICE: Should you risk a 100% mortgage? MORTGAGE FEES: Reclaim yours COMMENT: Greenspan sounds alarm POLL: What will happen to house prices in 2007? OTHER STORIES Pension payouts fall 78% in 10 years Market repo ...

SANTIAGO, Chile (AFX) - William Poole, a rate-setter at the US Federal Reserve, indicated that inflation in the US is still running above what he considers to be his comfort zone. In a speech at a conference here, the president of the St Louis branch of the Fed noted comments from other members of the rate-setting FOMC about a comfort zone of 1 to 2 pct inflation, as measured by the personal cons ...

WASHINGTON (AFX) - The performance of the UK economy was praised widely in the latest assessment from the International Monetary Fund though the global economic watchdog said further interest rate rises may be required should wage growth spike up. The IMF said the UK's macroeconomic performance remains "impressive", and noted faster growth, higher business investment, steady wage growth ...

LONDON (AFX) - The yen remained strong, benefiting from the ongoing reassessment of risk in global financial markets, with the pound and the Australian and Kiwi dollars hurt most as they touch multi-month lows against the Japanese currency. Investors are paring back their carry trades -- where money is borrowed in countries with low interest rates to be invested in higher-yielding economies -- in ...

People on benefits need to make "an even greater effort" to get a job, Prime Minister Tony Blair said as he unveiled a report on welfare reforms. He said this extra effort was expected in return for more help being given to help the long-term jobless find work. David Freud's report suggests private firms and charities give one-to-one help to cut long-term jobless by 1.3m. He also suggests making single parents look for work once their child turns 12, rather than 16 as at present. Chancellor  ...

SYDNEY (XFN-ASIA) - The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) said it expects the country's central bank to hike interest rates on Thursday in attempt to cool the property market despite inflation being comfortably in a targeted 1.0-3.0 pct band. The private research organization said failure to do so could renew pressure on property prices and inflation as investors will take the vi ...

LONDON (AFX) - A slowdown in the pace of growth of the UK's services sector amid higher borrowing costs has cemented expectations further that the Bank of England will keep interest rates unchanged on Thursday, analysts said. The monthly survey into the sector, which makes up around 74 pct of the country's GDP, from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply showed output growth during Febr ...

(Updating to add analyst comment) LONDON (AFX) - The euro zone's services sector saw its pace of growth decelerate slightly in February from the six-month high recorded in January, sources said of a key survey. They said that the services sector purchasing managers index fell to 57.5 in February from January's 57.9. The fall was in line with expectations. Despite the decline, the sector continu ...

BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - China is expected to see another year of high growth, with GDP expansion seen at around eight pct, Premier Wen Jiabao told the country's parliament. That compares with GDP growth of 10.7 pct last year, when Wen's forecast was also eight pct. He noted that the figure is only a "guide and indicator" used to set budget, employment and price targets. Wen added that on ...

(Updates with analyst comments) LONDON (AFX) - The Bank of England's rate hikes in November and January have yet to have an impact on consumer spending in the UK, a leading retailing lobby group said today. In its monthly survey of high street spending, the British Retail Consortium said like-for-like sales, which exclude new stores and office space, were up 3.3 pct in February on the previous y ...